Swing doors vs roll doors?

Roll into an ice cream plant to load with a roll up door. Watch them fall down laughing.

 

Um, wait a sec, I pulled lots of reefers with roll up doors, many with frozen on, why would someone refuse you a load if you had one?

 

How long were the runs?

 

I've had roll up doors that were insulated, frozen is frozen, I don't see the problem. Just about every grocery store chain has roll up doors, many with frozen on. Most of my loads were regional, sometimes, I had frozen in the front, a bunker pad, and van freight behind that.

 

Only problem is the roll doors are much thinner than reefer swing doors, and therefore (at least in theory) not nearly as well insulated, so unable to hold temp nearly as well. And frozen at 28 is a lot easier to hold temp than frozen at -10.

But many customers are still fine with roll doors. And if all you ever had was roll doors, then it's likely that those were the only shippers you encountered.

 

I'm guessing that it's also easier to hold when making multiple stops opening a roll up door at the dock rather than swing doors in the middle of the lot.

 

Probably. There might even be a mathematical formula that tells whether it's more efficient to have roll doors or swing, based on how much time between stops.

 

The loads I lost due to rollup doors were paper loads, such as toilet tissue and paper towels.
Pulled those trailers coast to coast. Hauled lots of produce and frozen.
If the dispatcher told me to find an empty on the yard, I'd look for a swing door as first choice.

 

I've pulled both in reefer and for frozen loads it was always the swing doors. Roll ups don't keep the cold in nearly as well. Roll ups are fine for chilled loads.